AUTOMATIC REPEAT REQUEST (ARQ) PROTOCOL FOR A MULTIHOP COOPERATIVE RELAY COMMUNICATION NETWORK

摘要

A method is provided for confirming whether a data unit transmitted from a base station (BS) was successfully relayed to a subscriber station via one of a plurality of relay stations in a multihop cooperative relay network. Selected ones of the relay stations are designated as: a front-linked relay station designed to only transmit a negative acknowledgement message to the BS upon receiving a data unit from the BS that is unable to be decoded and not to transmit an acknowledgement message upon receiving a data unit from the BS that is able to be decoded, and a back-linked relay station designed to only transmit a acknowledgement message to the BS upon receiving the data unit from the BS that is able to be decoded and not to transmit a negative acknowledgement message to the BS upon receiving a data unit from the BS that is unable to be decoded.